The Canadian Mental Health Association of Ontario is releasing a report with recommendations on moving toward legalizing and regulating cannabis.

Several key recommendations are outlined in the 18-page document, the first of which is that the province consider public health as the primary objective.

Legislation should also address addictions and mental health, minimum age requirements, regulation of sales as well as road and workplace safety.

Revenue from cannabis should also be directed back to issues related to its use, Claudia den Boer Grima is the CEO of CMHA Windsor.

"One would be development of programs that would help cannabis users face some of their mental health and addiction issues for public awareness campaigns, continued research on potential harms and benefits of cannabis usage," she says.

She says finding ways to determine cannabis use is important.

"The technology as I understand it is not there yet, so I think investing immediately to develop some kind of education strategy around what the use of cannabis can do to create impairment, and the best way to avoid driving impaired," says den Boer Grima.

She says the CMHA hopes this helps shape the way the legislation is written.

"We're providing some recommendations and some further consideration, continuing the conversation and healthy debate around what this needs to look like," she says.

The federal government has pledged to have legislation passed to allow for the legalization of marijuana in July next year.